Nationalise all banks

**Board Game Geek** · 12 November 2008, 01:19

I was going to say, because a private company can earn bucketloads of money for the people at the top, and that if it were nationalised and regulated, this wouldn't be the case. They'd do a runner for better money elsewhere.

Then I suddenly thought of the NHS, which is in effect nationalised (although funded by NI in part), and there are plenty of people at the top earning good money and they haven't done a runner because of nationalisation, and at the point of delivery the NHS is free, so perhaps you have point.

**expat** · 12 November 2008, 07:26

Originally posted by chris79 View Post

Am I missing something, or would it not be in the public interest to nationalise all banks/credit providers and do it through the state at a simple 'not for profit' low interest rate available to all UK citizens/businesses?

This would:-

1. Avoid irresponsible lending like seen over the last 5 years of the 'golden era'.

2. Make credit available for home owners, businesses.

3. Avoid people who lack financial knowledge 'Joe public' being ripped off from ridiculous APRs, fees, etc.

4. Stabalise the entire UK economy.

Why is banking allowed to be run privately anyway? Please excuse my ignorance on this, would like to hear the other side of the coin if there is one.

The other side of the coin is the belief that private entreprise will do it better, if only because it has to give the customers what they want, or die. A nationalised industry will of necessity set both its own targets and its measurement of success: it will do well what it wants to do.
In that argument, what we are seeing at the moment is not the proof that private enterprise can't do it well, but rather the workings of the mechanism whereby private entreprise does it well or pays the price for wrong decisions. Of course if government neither allows the market to work, nor runs its own public entreprise, but merely steps in with huge amounts of public money to save only the failing businesses, then the whole model is shafted.

There is also the view that it is not government's business to run a business, so the question of whether it would do it better is not the point. If you think of a business (for example banking) as a service rather than as a business, then you have already decided that it should be a government operation.

If you already have your own criteria for what banking must do, then of course it looks better if you just imagine that the government comes along and does it your way. I should remind you that government operations do not always work the way people wanted.

**Churchill** · 12 November 2008, 07:29

I'm saying don't do it for purely selfish reasons.

My shares would be worth even less!

**Purple Dalek** · 12 November 2008, 07:40

If the banks had been nationalised we'd be in an even worse mess, and almost certainly would not know a thing about it, except for esoteric stories in Private Eye or attached to reports of journos being locked up.

**DodgyAgent** · 12 November 2008, 07:57

Originally posted by chris79 View Post

Am I missing something, or would it not be in the public interest to nationalise all banks/credit providers and do it through the state at a simple 'not for profit' low interest rate available to all UK citizens/businesses?

This would:-

1. Avoid irresponsible lending like seen over the last 5 years of the 'golden era'.

2. Make credit available for home owners, businesses.

3. Avoid people who lack financial knowledge 'Joe public' being ripped off from ridiculous APRs, fees, etc.

4. Stabalise the entire UK economy.

Why is banking allowed to be run privately anyway? Please excuse my ignorance on this, would like to hear the other side of the coin if there is one.

The government cannot even regulate the industry properly how on earth can anyone expect them to run it?

And which public service or nationalised industry has a government anywhere ever been run with any sort of efficiency?

**AlfredJPruffock** · 12 November 2008, 07:58

Originally posted by DodgyAgent View Post

The government cannot even regulate the industry properly how on earth can anyone expect them to run it?

And which public service or nationalised industry has a government anywhere ever been run with any sort of efficiency?

How about the BBC ?

**DodgyAgent** · 12 November 2008, 08:03

Originally posted by AlfredJPruffock View Post

How about the BBC ?

and it is not even run by the govt. I believe they are so efficient that they only have 1000 people working in their HR department.

stick to poetry

**Turion** · 12 November 2008, 09:17

Originally posted by chris79 View Post

Am I missing something, or would it not be in the public interest to nationalise all banks/credit providers and do it through the state at a simple 'not for profit' low interest rate available to all UK citizens/businesses?

This would:-

1. Avoid irresponsible lending like seen over the last 5 years of the 'golden era'.

2. Make credit available for home owners, businesses.

3. Avoid people who lack financial knowledge 'Joe public' being ripped off from ridiculous APRs, fees, etc.

4. Stabalise the entire UK economy.

Why is banking allowed to be run privately anyway? Please excuse my ignorance on this, would like to hear the other side of the coin if there is one.

Have you thought of doing this

**DiscoStu** · 12 November 2008, 09:23

Originally posted by chris79 View Post

Am I missing something, or would it not be in the public interest to nationalise all banks/credit providers and do it through the state at a simple 'not for profit' low interest rate available to all UK citizens/businesses?

This would:-

1. Avoid irresponsible lending like seen over the last 5 years of the 'golden era'.

2. Make credit available for home owners, businesses.

3. Avoid people who lack financial knowledge 'Joe public' being ripped off from ridiculous APRs, fees, etc.

4. Stabalise the entire UK economy.

Why is banking allowed to be run privately anyway? Please excuse my ignorance on this, would like to hear the other side of the coin if there is one.

Sounds like a slippery slope towards collective farms to me... Still, I'm sure Minitrue will convince us it's for the best

Nationalise all banks